The Liceu surprises with the unpredictable in a season that will vibrate with 'Tristan und Isolde'

The magic of the unpredictable enriches everyday reality, and the surprise of what cannot be quantified or anticipated acquires special relevance in art. Even more so, when the raw material that builds it is the voice, an instrument difficult to master that leaves room for unexpected variations. This magic of the unpredictable will serve as the guiding thread for the 2025-2026 season of the Liceu, which will bring 116 performances to the great Barcelona theater, with 88 operas, in addition to 16 dance performances and 12 concerts.

The season, whose budget this year amounts to 58 million euros —3.5 more than the current one—, will have highlights such as Manon Lescaut by Àlex Ollé, Akhnaten and, especially, Tristan und Isolde, by Bárbara Lluch and with the expected debut of Lise Davidsen as the protagonist. The season, moreover, will be marked by a celebration, that of the 25th anniversary of the Petit Liceu, and by a farewell: that of Josep Pons as principal conductor. In addition, the Liceu is advancing its expansion with a second venue, known as Liceu Mar, which will call for a project competition before summer to begin defining itself.

Pons, in office since 2012, will leave the Liceu in 2026 to conduct the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, but he will not leave it entirely: he will be the Liceu's conductor emeritus. "After so many years, this is his home, and we want it to continue to be so," highlighted the president of the Gran Teatre del Liceu Foundation, Salvador Alemany, alongside Pons himself; the general director, Valentí Oviedo, and the theater's artistic director, Víctor Garcia de Gomar.

"This will be a year of farewell and tribute to Josep Pons," Alemany emphasized. In parallel, Oviedo, Garcia De Gomar and Pons himself are working on the process to find his replacement: it began with a selection of about thirty names; from there, it moved to a dozen, of which about four are still being considered, and who will be tested at the Liceu over the next few months. With one objective: "To verify that there is that magic and that falling in love between conductor and orchestra," with the intention that it be a conductor who extends his stay at the Liceu for years, and not a "transitory" figure, according to Garcia de Gomar.

"Fourteen years are many years," Pons highlighted, expressing confidence that the next principal conductor will bring freshness to the Liceu. During the season he will remain in office, he will continue building "a leading orchestra in full musical form," which now expands to 90 members, with the forecast of reaching 94 in the coming months. Pons will close his tenure as principal conductor musically directing Verdi's Falstaff, with a staging by Laurent Pelly and with the voice of Daniela Barcellona, with Ambrogio Maestri and Luca Salsi, "two of the best Falstaffs of the generation," according to the theater's artistic director.

The Falstaff directed by Pons will be part of a season that will include five new productions, two of which have been led by the Liceu. The first is the world premiere of Bárbara Lluch's production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, with the debut of Lise Davidsen as Isolde and with Susana Mälkki on the podium. This anticipated debut "will be one of the most important moments of the season, or of the decade," Garcia de Gomar proudly claimed: "Before the Metropolitan can present it, we will have it."

Marta Pazos will design the other production led by the Liceu this season: the stage director proposes a version of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with Giovanni Antonini conducting and with the voices of Sara Blanch and Konstantin Krimmel. The new co-productions that will arrive at the great Barcelona theater will be La Gioconda, "of classical style" with Daniel Oren as conductor and with Saioa Hernández and Ekaterina Seenchuk as star voices, along with Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen, and Marina Abramovic's "unclassifiable" and provocative work Balkam Erotic Epic.

Abramovic, who has illustrated the season's program, will be one of the seven artists that will make up the fifth edition of the Liceu de les Arts, which once again moves away from lyrical art to link it with other artistic disciplines. This season, it will also delve into the universe of visual artist Eulàlia Valldosera, sculptor Gonzalo Guzmán, and plastic artist Santi Moix, who will travel to South America through his music, under the musical direction of Jordi Savall. For their part, the work of visual artist Joan Joanas and the texts of poet Enric Casasses will form a new contemporary Bestiari, while photographer and performance artist Liu Bolin will paint himself in the series Camuflatges urbans.

The season will kick off on September 22 with one of these new co-productions: The Cunning Little Vixen, with Barrie Kosky's stage proposal and the voices of Peter Mattei, Elena Tsallagova, and Paula Murrihy. Two days earlier, the work will be offered in an exclusive performance within the Òpera entre generacions program. With a particularity, the title will be offered at half price for all its performances to commemorate one of the reasons for celebration this season: the 25th anniversary of the Petit Liceu.

"We want to facilitate access for everyone to an opera like this, which is practically a fairy tale, a beautiful opera, to make it accessible," defended Oviedo, who announced that the season will include raffles to bring the Liceu closer to citizens. In addition, before the season's kick-off, the Liceu will once again go up to Montserrat on September 6 during the Mil·lenari Music Festival, in the Basilica.

Another highlight of the season will be Akhnaten, the third part of Philip Glass's operatic trilogy about revolutionary figures, in this case about the pharaoh and his influence on religion. With direction by Karem Kamensek and production by Phelim McDermot, Antony Roth Costanzo and Rihab Chaieb will fill the Liceu with their voices.

Àlex Ollé's production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut, directed by Josep Pons and starring Asmik Grigorian, will be another of the season's great moments. Christof Loy's production of Jules Massenet's Werther will also arrive at the Liceu for the first time, and the season will have only one revival: Mario Gas's production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, directed by Diego Matheuz.

To give wings to new productions, the season's program includes the opera Els Stuntmen, by Nao Albert and Marcel Borràs, with music by Fernando Velázquez to question current heroes and masculinity archetypes. The work, a co-production with the Teatro Real, Teatros del Canal and Teatre Lliure, can be seen precisely at the Lliure in April.

Recitals and concerts will also play a relevant role in the season, with performances by Juan Diego Flórez, Renée Fleming, Pretty Yende, Xabier Anduag and Roberto Alagna. In addition, the theater has articulated a "very spectacular dance season", with Giselle by the German company Bayerisches Saatsballet, John Naumeir's choreographies with The Hamburg Ballet in Nijnsky and La Nit de Sant Joan directed by Antonio Ruz, in this case, included in the Liceu Aprèn program. This year, the educational project will revolve around the 25th anniversary of the Petit Liceu, with special activities and performances throughout the season. Among the novelties, which will be detailed shortly, are the events Simfònic en família, Trencanous-Jazz, Al cor del petit Liceu and La jove Aïda, a family opera that will tour Catalonia before arriving at the Liceu.

Mindfulness and return of the digital platform

In its path of own production, the Liceu continues to bet on the Òh!pera project, which reaches its fifth edition with the aim of serving as a gateway for young creators to the world of opera from multiple artistic fields. In this edition, with Àlex Ollé at the helm, it will feature composers Sergi Puig, Arnau Brichs and Anna Colom, along with librettists Pablo Macho, Pol Guasch and Alicia Kopf, and stage directors Ferran Utzet, Lucia del Greco and Marc Salicrú.

The new season, which maintains theater programs such as LiceuUnder35, incorporates other novelties that go beyond lyricism: the institution recovers Liceu Opera+, the digital broadcasting platform, which returns with more advanced technology, after overcoming disagreements over audiovisual rights, and launches a new proposal: the cycle of eight events Respirar l'Òpera (Breathing Opera), with music and mindfulness sessions and conscious listening, before theater performances on Fridays.

"Coming to the opera requires an intellectual effort, and facing the opera directly upon arriving from the rhythm of daily life sometimes causes a hustle," highlighted Oviedo. After a couple of pilot tests, they have decided to launch these sessions, based on a premise: "There is nothing more mindfulness than live performance; opera is nothing more than a mindfulness exercise in its purest state. It is a here and now moment that we believe we can promote at a time when life goes very fast, and that art can be a stimulus to calm and lower heart rate."

Liceu has built this season and its novelties with a budget of 58 million euros, 3.5 million more than the previous one. Of the total, Liceu contributes 28.7 million, through tickets (about 20 million) and patronage (7.7 million more), while administrations contribute the remaining 49%. Within its budget, this season highlights the investment it will allocate to productions, which amounts to 1.8 million, compared to 1.1 million in the current one, as Oviedo detailed: "We had lost this mechanism of promoting productions and co-productions, and now I believe we are gaining cruising speed."

Liceu Mar on the horizon

All this while progress continues in the concretization of what is known as Liceu Mar, which will be located in Port Vell. After a halt due to the America's Cup, the project was reactivated in October with the signing of the agreement to call for the architecture competition that will define the theater's new headquarters. With the forecast that it will be called before summer, the facility will begin to take shape with the aim of turning it into a shared project, as Oviedo highlighted in a Moments Estel·lars session organized by The New Barcelona Post.

Through this competition, according to Alemany, "we will see what is presented and what is liked, and the city has a lot to say". And the project will not only affect the Barcelona cultural scene, but also the silhouette of the Catalan capital: "We are touching the city, we are touching its skyline; we are ambitious with what we want the facility to be, and with what we want to give to the city."